I should really start some kind of ‘Beers of the World’ series shouldn’t I? I am very lucky in that a member of my family works for a well known airline, meaning I am constantly treated to interesting beers from across the globe (not all of them tasty, mind).
Today’s beers come to you all the way from Japan and are brewed by Sapporo, known for, well, that huge silver Sapporo can you see in the World Beers section of your favourite supermarkets.
Yebisu All Malt Beer (5%)
You’ll see that I poured this into an Absolut London glass…I just…don’t care. It was a glass, it was clean and it was fine for beer.
I think that final photo sums up the colour fairly well. It was yellow, Homer Simpson yellow. You can also see the bubbles, like a can of fizzy pop. The head was white, minimal and didn’t last very long as you might expect. On the nose it was malty (again, you might expect that from the name), but with sweet hints of caramel coming through. The taste? Well, floral, but fairly bland actually. My goodness though…that malt. It absolutely coated your mouth and throat in the type of way that made me instantly turn to my drinking buddy and raise an eyebrow (and do a little cough). I found this feeling pretty unpleasant, but Drinking Buddy felt I was being harsh. Still, not one I would return to.
Yebisu Joel Robuchon (5%)
It’s always nice when your beer has a human name, don’t you think? This one was a bit sturdier than the All Malt Beer. It poured a golden yellow with an off white, fizzy head. Again those malts came through in the aroma along with a floral fruitiness. Flavour wise that citrus fruit did come through (though it was subtle), the malt feel was there without coating your mouth and it had a good balance of sweet and bitterness. I don’t know whether it was me finding it incredible after the previous disaster, but I’d come back to this again.
I’m not finished with Japanese beers just yet. I’ve had some proper corkers from that part of the world, so the search continues!
The Crafty Beeress 